After we went through the somewhat majestic entrance of the Labyrinth, we arrived at a somewhat damp stone room that one wouldn't be wrong to describe as a dungeon.
Looking around, I spot a small pool transparent clear blue liquid and I walk over. "Hey guys, isn't this liquid the... what was it... Y'know the healing liquid?" I finish lamely.
"Oh yeah! The white-cloaks did mention in one of our lessons that at the start of a Labyrinth there would be a pool of 'Health Potion' that we can collect" Sarah says.
"Okay someone empty your canteen and fill it up with the potion"
While some of the others are filling up the canteens, I stare at my reflection.
"I really have changed, huh?" I mutter. Looking back at me from the water is a lean and muscular young man with an Asian skin tone and midnight black hair. I remember how I used to look before we came here, and I looked nothing like this. First off I had become exponentially more muscular, and I don't doubt that my somewhat rugged looks would be attractive to some women. I had let my hair grow out a more than before, so if you looked at only my head from behind me you could (somehow) mistake me for a girl.
Putting aside my self-examination I head toward the door to the next chamber along with all the others. The white-cloaks had warned us that after the relative safety of the first room, the second room would be the main part of the Meteor. A 'labyrinth' or a maze of sorts. Inside, we would find many different passages, rooms, traps, monsters, and treasures. And somewhere inside those twisting corridors was the 'Heart of the Meteor'. According to the white-cloaks, the Heart was a glass (as advertised) human heart. Somewhat creepy but harmless if you don't count the monsters guarding it.
Upon entering the through the archway to the maze portion of the Meteor, we immediately find ourselves with a group of grotesque boars that look like they have the heads of sharks. We start chanting our spells immediately, I personally would have preferred to use a sword, but for some reason they didn't have any back at the castle or in the whole of the capital. Odd, but now isn't the time to think on it.
"Aver Undet Flarem!" I shout. Out from my hands leaps a snake comprised of flames, it leaps onto one of the boars and coils around its body, suddenly I can smell burning flesh, the boar drops dead after a few moments of the fire snake coiling around it, and the snake disappears after.
"Heuk.." I retch from the extremely unpleasant smell of burning flesh.
"You alright there Sirus?" Dylan shouts my way.
"All good, just the smell that got me."
"Yeah it suc- Aver Darine Coralus!" A seahorse made of water sprouts out of Dylan's hands and rams into another of the boars.
"Damn, I don't remember any of the white-cloaks teaching us that in our class!" I exclaim in surprise.
He grins at me "Don't tell them, but I snuck into the library and studied some of the higher class mage books, it takes a bit to learn, but the only downside is that it takes some more mana."
I shout a quick 'Nice!' at him and get back to my fighting.
-3 Days Later-
"I just got to level 25!" Shouts someone in our group.
Personally I had reached level 25 early yesterday, but it seemed that some of the slower fighters had a harder time leveling up.
"Fooooh" I let out a sigh. In the past 2 days we had made pretty good progress and I figure that we'll chance upon the room that the Heart is in any time now.
I stretch and let out a yawn, looking for a specific room in the Labyrinth is awfully boring, and we have pretty much no way to know what time it is on the outside, so our sleep schedule is pretty messed up.
"Hey guys!" a familiar female voice shouts out.
"I think I've found the Heart room!"
Huh.
Quickly rushing down the intersection that Sarah turned down, I follow after her voice and eventually reach another ornate archway. Not waiting for the others, I rush in with Sarah.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Looking around there seems to be only a single monster, something that the white-cloaks would call a 'boss-class' meaning that its probably far tougher than the monster's we have fought so far.
The others join us quickly.
"Ew, why does it have a Jellyfish on its head?" One of the girls remark.
"I don't think its on its head, I think it is its head." I reply
Looking closer at it, I ascertain that it looks to be a fusion of a Jellyfish and... a Scorpion? Possibly a Lion too, due to its muscular torso. The reason why I say Scorpion is because it has a menacing barbed tail swishing around behind it.
Hoping to surprise it, I cast a fireball spell at it. Not quite as flashy as a snake of flames, but it certainly does its job. The rest of my group takes the initiative and bombards the scorpion amalgam with similar destructive spells.
Probably thinking that bombardment took care of the monster in one go, Chris walks towards it.
"VRAAAAAAAAAAH" A roar sounds out.
Quickly I cast the rope bind spell on Chris and pull him back just before the Scorpion's tail impales him.
"VRRRRING" Its tail barb skids across the stone.
"FUCK, that was close" Chris exclaims. "Thanks for the save man, I probably woulda died without you."
"S'all good, just don't rush in next time" With that I begin peppering the scorpion with spells again, as do the rest of our group.
It seems like it was heavily affected from our earlier frenzy of blasts, and that earlier was probably it's last stand. Just to be sure though we continued blasting it for another minute or so, and waited until the smoke cleared.
"Yikes" Someone says.
"Yikes indeed" I sagely respond. The Scorpion seems to have been completely mutilated, some of its limbs are missing and there are huge holes in its chest, while the jellyfish portion seemed to have... popped? I don't know, not quite sure how it pulled off that roar earlier either but chalked it up to 'magic bullshit'.
I pull up a notification from the system that I'd hidden for the battle. "Level 27, huh?" With this, everyone in our 15 person group should be up to level 25 at the minimum.
There's another room to the side that we didn't see earlier and we head inside.
Inside, there are 15 pedestals each with a single item on them, thinking this is a trap, I start to warn the others but...
"First come first serve!"
...They all rushed in anyways.
Seeing that nothing bad is happening I run over and pick one of the pedestals as well, Looking at the item, it seems to be a black steel themed old clockwork watch. I check its stats.
[Black Steel Watch of the Timekeeper
Description: An exquisitely crafted watch made by an extremely talented Timekeeper
Abilities: Agility: +15 Sight: +10. Gives you a skill called 'Timekeeper's Last Resort'
Timekeeper's Last Resort: Allows you to, once per 4 days, revert the status of your body to pristine condition.
Uses: 3/3]
...This thing is OP. I decide to keep it as my little (large) secret for now though.
"Yo what'd you get Sirus?" Dylan asks.
"Just a cool watch that gives me some stats" I blatantly lie
"Damn, you got lucky, I just got a bandana and it doesn't even do anything."
"That's unlucky" I say while still staring at my watch.
"I know right?"
We all walk out of the loot room and back to where we were before.
"So we just smash the Heart now too?" Someone asks.
"Yeah I would guess so." I answer.
...We bombard the heart as well.
It actually broke after being hit with around 5 spells but everyone else kept firing for some reason.
A few moments later, the rock ceiling above us started rumbling, while in front of us another archway appears, this time filled with white light.
"Run for the arch!" I shout.
We all sprint towards the white light.
---
"Phew" I exclaim with relief, similar sounds echo from the others.
Running into the archway had teleported us to the entrance archway, square in the center of where the white-cloaks were camped.
"Ah, I see you all have finished up with the Labyrinth!" One of the white-cloaks says.
"Yup!" We all respond with.
"It wasn't all that hard either, most of the monsters died pretty quickly, even the boss" Sarah smugly remarks.
"As expected of the Heroes!" the white-cloak lets out a hearty bellow, "We should head back to the capital and get you your classes, eh?"
-2 Days Later-
After an altogether uncomfortable carriage ride back to the capital, we finally arrived, and were now in a room specially prepared for our class rituals by the king.
One of the white-cloaks informs us. "The rituals are ready, now each of you stand in one of the circles."
The 'circles' were exactly what would would imagine to be in a world filled with magic, they were unsurprisingly 'magic circles' drawn with some type of bluish powder to resemble a pentogram.
There were 15 in total and we all stood in the center of one.
"All ready? Great, lets begin."
And then my vision went black.